Think About Me

Apologies for no update over the weekend. This comic went through, like, 4 drafts. Eventually I landed on this, and this is the chapter end. There was enough dialogue for two comics, which were originally planned, but since comics are a visual medium… when in doubt… go with the wordless concept.

And with the chapter end I’d like to say thanks again to all my loyal, die hard and/or casual readers for helping Shotgun Shuffle stay on its feet. I still get emails saying “Remember when you almost quit.” Yeah. I do. All the time. :) So whether your supporting me on Patreon, or just supporting me with word of mouth and viewing my silly comics, I thank you. It really does mean the world to me, and I’m more than happy to bring you Chapter 5 on Wednesday. If you haven’t noticed, I’m very adamant about each comic being upheld to a certain standard of work. No comic, no matter how much or how little it impacts the overall story, is ever phoned in. Each has to be my best possible work. It can be tiring, it can be stressful, and God knows, it’s time consuming. But it’s what you’re worth. Sure I want to be a better artist, and writer in the long term.. but it’s never about me. It’s about how the webcomic community deserves the best possible quality of comics their artists can produce. This is something I felt before I made strip one. It’s how I still fell about it now.

On a similar note, there is a comic that started almost a year ago I’d like to plug, which is entitled Nevermind. It’s cute, it’s different, and it’s also in relative obscurity. It’s only at about 40 strips, so it’s not hard to catch up… so if you’re into “adorably weird” (and if you’re reading this, you run a high likelihood) please throw some love at Azure by clicking the link and perhaps leaving a comment. One thing I enjoy the most is the use of colored word bubbles. I may steal that.

The last time I actually used a payphone was in highschool. I think there are still phone booths in my city, but it’s become uneconomic to repair them, so they get broken, and sit like that for a while, and them someone rips the entire thing out in a drunken berserker rage, and then it sits even more broken for a while, until it eventually gets torn down.

It depends on the city but I know in my city they have good ones stocked in storage but they don’t replace broken ones unless it’s located in a government building and only one per building for a certain area. Like if you got one of these phones installed in Building A and then a few blocks away there is another government building B, they won’t replace any that breaks in that B because you got a working one in the A.

I remember in University and Basic Training I used to use payphones.
I used phone cards that had an American flag in the background, and a bald eagle in the foreground.

Bear in mind I don’t know any Spanish, so the next part is what I heard, and is both likely misspelled, and slightly off from what was actually said.

The menu when using these phones always went:

“Para Espanoil, Hombrene Uno, for English press 2.”

It always struck me as odd that a phonecard so American patriotic on the outside had English as option 2.

I wanted to stay away from the brain cancer boxes as long as possible (they emit microwaves that are only harmful 4-6 inches away from the antenna, but the entirety of the human brain is within that radius when you hold it up to your ear), but The Army requires you to have the digital leash on you at all times.

I’m still waiting for all the cancers to start.

It reminds me of how Radium Water (water purposefully containing radioactive isotopes) was the greatest health fad in the early 1900’s, and overly tanned bodies was the health fad of the 1960’s through the 1990’s.

Now cancer is at epidemic levels for the elderly, and melanoma (skin cancer) is at epidemic levels for everyone else. Now they are saying that almost all foods that are not kale or some other vegan fad diet food contain carcinogens and parents are being urged to not let their kids play outside for 5 minutes without being covered from head to toe in SPF 120 or stronger.

I think about you
Honey all the time
my heart says yes
I think about you
Deep inside I love you best
I think about you
You know you’re the one I want
I think about you
Darlin’ you’re the only one
I think about you

That time you thought we’d let you quit really backfired, didn’t it? Now ‘yer ours forever, eternally tasked with making excessively well-polished panels! Mwahaha -err, glad to hear you’re doing well.
Being serious, though, your fanbase is behind you 100% no matter what schedule you stick to, and I’m sure we’re all more than happy to see something at its best rather than something pumped out to stick to a self-imposed deadline. I wish a few big companies out there would learn this, actually. Don’t be too hard on yourself!

I’m kinda’ wondering about that myself. Just a platonic, long-distance relationship would make sense for them, and be enough to cause Vu’s jealousy.

If you look at it from Ellie’s stance of a guy who’ll talk to her and not be trying to get in her pants, along with the fact that she’s a very social person, I can see how associating with Caleb seems like a net positive.

For Caleb, if Vu’s this negative and on his case as much as it’s seemed with our quick glimpses, I can see how a friendly female presence is welcome.

So, what you are saying is this comic is one where all the characters are some how tied up in a tangled web of romantic and/or family attachments? (looks at archives) Yup, that checks. Carry on, my wayward son.

So, next chapter features David. Tarragon’s David. In which, we are told, Ellie will come between them. Now you hint that the relationship between Ellie and Blind Guy will progress. This brings the question: Is Blind Guy in fact, David? Is Caleb cheating on Vu with Ellie? Will Quinn and Pumpkin make an announcement at Thanksgiving? Will Ross and Rachel get back together? Will Lassy get Timmy out of the well? Find out in the next chapter of…

* Ellie’s next job after this thing with Danny will be working with Tarra’s David.
* Tarra’s mapping in 7 sisters – 7 sins is Envy
** Tarra doesn’t seem like she’d have a lot to Envy, and Rusche confirmed speculation in comments that her Envy would come out due to romance.
* Future Tarra (Sister X) has a different colored speech bubble than current Tarra, and this is caused by Ellie (see author post on comic Nightmare Fuel 13 April 2014 for reference on X-Tarra differences).
* Speech bubbles occasionally change color temporarily to show different emotions (real or presented).

From those things I’ve been concluding that Ellie will end up seriously involved with David at some point. I think Rusche also said that Ellie would have a couple of serious relationships throughout the comic, so it’s possible David isn’t the first one. There have been some hints that could go either way as to if Blind Guy is Tarra’s David or not.

If Blind Guy does turn out to be Tarra’s David, I think a good short Patreon arc might be the conversation I’m sure Rosemary had with him once she found out he was going to be Pumpkin’s teacher.

Of course for the envy to come out, it doesn’t necessarily have to become romantic between Ellie and David at all. That she’s able to regularily spend time with him might be enough for Tarra. Especially if she herself isn’t.

It’s possible that Ellie and Caleb will keep in touch and not ever get romantically involved with each other. Enjoying talking to each other when expecting to always live several hours with one international border between can leave that as a good enough final state.

I just want to say thank you to Chris’ vote machine operators. Even though it’s the start of the month, with every day we get closer to the top 20 and above is another chance to get more readers. More readers, when retained means more vote clicks per day. More vote clicks per day equates to a higher (love?) position on the TopWebComic standings.

All of these could turn into another ComicMix battle of epic proportions worthy of song and poems being read by school children in a few millenia.

So, long story short. Vote for SHOTGUN SHUFFLE to bring Ellie and Quinn to the masses. Now go forth into the digital deserts pronouncing the heralds of the Shufflverse.

Personally, I think that a poster would be cool. Limited number, signed… That would be cake. And if cake was a scale, there would be the cake at school, box mix at home, grocery store bakery, home baked from scratch, small town bakery and then professional wedding cake baker.

But a limited number, signed edition would be wedding cake.. so, getting it at the Sigma 6 would be better than home baked. From scratch.

Rusche, I think last comic was easily appropriate for a week’s worth of output. While I don’t deny an insatiable desire to see what happens next in any and all stories I care about (this being one), I’m happy to see this delayed until today. You can’t run an engine cranked up to 11 for a prolonged period.

I agree. Most of us are old enough to be able to wait a few extra days for the next comic. If you’ve got a 16 hour comic, you’ve put in 2 full-time shifts worth of work. It should be 2 days’ worth of comics. Let us know it’s a double edition.

This comic has been something that I’ve followed since I started high school and it’s something that I’ve come to love. Through thick and thin you’ve stuck hard, and it makes me think, if you can go through car wrecks and nearly abandoning a comic and all this other stuff, then I can deal with the drama of high school.

*squeals* OMG! I love. Ok, I like Ellie and Mr. Stevens……but also her and Caleb. Don’t know which ship I like better….but I like the development all the same. This ship has weighed anchor and pulled out of the dock. XD

It can be concluded he just missed his plane, so his section would be empty. And personally, I’ve been stuck in sections before with virtually no people in them because I got there too early. That also adds to a feeling or isolation, and why he’s calling someone to talk to. :D

Look at the difference in perspective :-) I was under the impression that he was looking up at the payphone ringing…that explains a lot, I was trying to figure out how Ellie got hold of that number, she must have been super determined to call him but instead he calls her. So that answers that question.

I really love this page! It works great without dialogue. And thanks for the comic recommendation. Can’t wait to read it! The art style is really unique, and appealing. Cyclops on the first page? Yes, please.

One of my all time personal favorite comics is the first chapter of the Many Deaths of Batman. The whole comic has two words in it, which are simply “Get Out” spoken by Gordon over the body of “Batman” in a Gotham morgue to the Mortician.

I really love your wordless comics/panels. Window Shopping is still my favorite one of these, because it was hilarious, but this one says a LOT.
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Also: Still haven’t noticed any decline in quality since Jessica took over. If you hadn’t announced it I’d probably still think you were doing the coloring. Three cheers for her high level of quality as a colorist!